


Never trust a Koi

by Wasthatapun



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-26
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 15:00:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/736992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wasthatapun/pseuds/Wasthatapun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Jon’s power source malfunctions in a big way while Michael is doing maintenance. Reality gets distorted and now the steam man band gets to deal with a very human The Jon and Michael gets to walk a mile in robut shoes</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

There was an unpleasant sounding crunch followed by a grinding noise and suddenly The Jon didn’t look nearly as giddy as he had a few moments before.

Michael had been working on a rather interesting book The Spine had lent him but now he set the paperback aside in favor of checking on his friend.

He knelt beside The Jon, who had been sitting cross legged on the floor, “You okay there buddy?” Michael asked, one hand patting The Jon’s shoulder comfortingly.

The Jon wouldn’t look Michael directly in the eye at first. Choosing to instead shift uncomfortably as his gears produced more odd sputtering grinding noises.

Michael was sure that if he could have been blushing, The Jon would have been bright red. Finally he looked Michael in the face and said sheepishly “I don’t think I go-got all the wrapper off my snack.”

‘Don’t laugh, don’t laugh!’ Michael snickered anyway. “Don’t worry The Jon; I’m sure it’s no big deal.” Michael patted the table “okay, hop up and I’ll see if I can get you fixed real quick.”  
The Jon obliged hopping up onto the table and unbuttoning his shirt and pushes his suspended out of Michael’s way.

Reaching around the bot his fingers fumbled for a moment before finding the tiny switch which gave a satisfying click as The Jon’s chest plate swung open.

There it was, the strange void, containing the hotdog in a bun, and koi fish that powered his mechanical friend. The Koi swam in a lazy circle as Michael rooted around trying to find the obstruction, with the koi periodically pausing in his rounds to nibble at Michael's elbow or snuggle in with the hotdog.

It was always a bit weird doing repairs on The Jon because, well, physics just didn’t work. He was literally up to his elbow groping blindly in his chassis for the offending wrapper, The Jon let out a hiccup as Michael tried to stretch a bit farther into what should have been less than a foot or so of space.

“Am I getting anywhere close The Jon?”

“A bit more to the left I think” The Jon said absently, trying his best not to fidget and mostly succeeding. His power core was feeling odd and Gillbert seemed to be getting a bit antsy the longer this took.

Not that the koi fish had an actual name, The Jon would periodically decide on almost certainly arbitrary names while other times referring to it as simply The Koi at others. Actually he’d been calling the Hot dog in a bun gilbert a few weeks back, maybe it was time for a feminine name this time around? 

The Jon shrugged to himself, as his thoughts floated by until finally being brought back to the task at hand as Michel made a triumphant noise as his arms bent at a slightly different angle.

“Almost got it!” Michael could feel the edge of a wrapper sticking out from between two gears, the tips of his fingers just barely grazing its edge. He was so close to getting the dang thing out and the Koi was starting to get surprisingly agitated. Its normally lazy circles had become frantic swishing and dodging right next to his elbow. He wondered what The Jon was currently calling it. Lasted he’d heard it was sir bun-bun the magnificent and his trusty steed sir sausage of kraut.

Suddenly he caught a good hold of the offending container and gave it a quick tug. Hearing the satisfying click, tink, whirr as gears were once again allowed to move as they’d been intended and The Jon was finally able to sit up straight.

Michael leaned back onto his heals and held the bent and battered wrapper shred up triumphantly. “Told you it’d be no problem The Jon!” he smiled,

But The Jon didn’t seem nearly as pleased as he ought to. “A-a-a-are you sure you got all of it? I still d-d-d-don’t feel right.”

Michael’s brow furrowed and he turned his attention back to his friends open chassis. While his attention had been turned away the koi had worked itself into an absolute panic, frantically thrashing about in the oscillating blue glowing void of The Jon’s chest.

“That doesn’t look right.”

The words barely left his mouth when the Koi gave one final thrash, and everything was suddenly painfully bright blue and he wasn’t on his feet anymore, the last thing he was aware of was his back connecting with the wall behind him and a crunch as The Jon connected with the opposite wall before he faded from consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

Oddly, the first thing that registered when Michael finally started to regain consciousness was the sound of The Jon positively Sobbing.

“Michael. Michael wake up”

The Spines voice was the second thing Michael was aware of, it was filled with worry and something else.

”Michael please wake up”

Finally, Michael’s eyes snapped open and there was The Spine, face close to his own and brow furrowed in both fear and…confusion?

It took Michael a moment to sit himself up, sliding upward against the wall for leverage. The Spine still had a steadying hand on his shoulder.

“Careful Michael, everything…everything’ll be just fine.” The Spine said, but he sure didn’t sound too sure of himself.

Why did everything seem so off? Why was the spine hovering over him when The Jon was so obviously upset? Maybe Michael had hit his head and they were worried about a possible concussion. It would explain why everything felt disjointed and surreal, as if he’d been drugged.

Looking past The Spine, Michael turned his attention to the rest of the room. Steve and Sam stood side by side at the door. Steve’s expression was severe and unsure while Sam was wide eyed, his gaze bouncing from one side of the room to the other in open bewilderment.

On the other side of the room, The Jon was huddled against the wall sobbing pitifully onto his knees, his hat obscuring the rest of his face. Rabbit had a comforting hand behind the smaller bot cooing soft reassurances to try and calm him down. A puff of steam escapes Rabbits vents as he sighed, obviously getting nowhere, and instead took a breath and began to sing.

Soft and gentle Rabbits voice carried the first verse of Honeybee. The Jon’s sobbing began to slow somewhat and by the time the first chorus came, his voice only just barely hitched as he joined in with the melody.

Rabbit let the song fade away again as The Jon’s cries disappeared into quiet sniffling and was pulled to his older brothers chest, arms wrapped protective around his still shaking shoulders.

Worry shot through Michael, What if something was really wrong with his friend?

He tried to speak only to feel something catch in his throat. The Spine caught his elbow and tried to steady him as his body jerked forward as he coughed, the sound of steam in his ears as something thick dripped from his lips, landing on the ground between his knees.

Michael’s words were caught in his throat and he closed his eyes, pressing his palm against the sockets as he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. There was another loud hiss of steam in his ears. He wiped his mouth with the back of his arm and glanced down, curious, and froze.

Black, viscous oil was spread along the back of his dull grey metal arm.

“Guys. What just happened.”


	3. Chapter 3

Steve was the first to speak “We have no freakin idea, was kind of hoping you could tell us how…um.” Steve looked at a loss, waving his hand vaguely as he searched for words.

Looking to Sam for help the mustachioed drummer chimed in. “How did you turn into a Robot, and The Jon human?”

At that, Michael’s attention snapped to the other side of the room just in time to see The Jon peer out from over Rabbit’s shoulder, his green eyes very wide, very worried, and very human.

“The Jon?!”

“Michael, you’re okay!” The Jon tried his usual full charge into Michael only to discover Rabbit still had a firm grip around his thin shoulders and was keeping him seated.

“Sit ST-ST-ST-T-T-till The Jon! You hit your head really hard and it’s not like we can just P-P-pop the dent out now!”

As the pair struggled and argued. With The Jon insisting he was Just Fine and Rabbit going off about concussions and brain damage and humans are delicate. Michael decided to take this moment to see if he could stand properly.

Michael carefully rose to his feet, flinching slightly as he not only heard but felt the pistons in his legs as he stood, The Spine still holding onto his elbow with another hand at his back helping him to stand.

“sssSSSSPPPIIIIiiinnNNNEEE.” The Jon whined loud and plaintive “Rabbit won’t lemme getup! I’m fine I promise!”

Rabbit very gently brought his hand to the back of his brother’s head, who immediately let out a wail and jerked away from him, eyes once again brimming with tears.

“Yeah, I didn’t even touch it yet. You are not fine; you just barely stopped sobbing your eyes out AND YOU HAVE A HEAD INJURY.”

The Jon was talented at puppy eyes before when all he had to work with was metal and glowing photoreceptors. Now human the expression was absolutely heartbreaking as his eyes looked up at them with such melancholy, cheeks covered in salt and water tears, as his lower lip trembled in a pout. “But I gotta check on Michael!”

Who was currently taking his first tentative steps in a body that wasn’t his as if he was absolutely certain they would fail on him at any moment. But they didn’t and without a single trip or stumble he had crossed the room and knelt beside his friends, The Spine taking position on his brothers’ other side and giving him a reassuring hug.

“No you don’t, I’m just fine… I think.” Michael looked down at his metal hand and forearm dubiously.

“What the hell happened?” Steve and Sam had finally left the doorway and now stood over them. Steve’s arms crossed in a silent demand for some kind of explanation.

Rabbit finally released his hold on The Jon who began fiddling with his suspenders.

“Michael was readin and I was having a snack but I didn’t get all the wrapper off and I couldn’t sit up right cause it got caught and Michael tried to fix it and then Paige was acting funny and then everything was blue and I hit the wall and I don’t like hurt why’d humans have hurt it’s not fun and I don’t like it.” The Jon took a deep gasp of air as the flood of words finally petered to an end and he finally looked up from where his pale fingers where toying with his bright red suspenders.

“Is Paige the koi or the hotdog right now?” Sam asked

“Koi, I’m thinking about Bernice though.”

“Good to know.”

Steve tapped at the side of Michaels head listening to the *tink* “this may be in the top fie of weird ass stuff I’ve seen in this place.”

Michael swatted Steve’s hand, who hissed sharply at the sting of metal-on-flesh “Stop it! What do we do now?”

There was silence as they all stared blankly at each other, completely at a loss.

Suddenly The Jon perked up, raising his hand slightly for attention “oh! I think I’m hungry. Can I have a sand-which?”

More looks. It was Sam who finally spoke, shrugging and grabbing The Jon’s forearm o help him to his feet. “Sure why not, and we can give Peter 6th a shout to come down and see what’s up.”

“I suppose that’s as good a plan as any.” The Spine shrugged, his eyes still on his smallest brother who, while a bit wobbly, seemed to be picking up controlling this body rather quickly.

“But be careful The Jon!” Rabbit reprimanded, trying to half carry him.

But The Jon pulled away, choosing instead to use Sam to aid in balancing as he took his first wiggling stumbling steps. “I’m fine!” he insisted even as Sam caught him as he tripped a bit over his own toes.

Michael sighed, this time very aware of the fact that the steam he heard was from his own mouth. Steve clapped a hand on his shoulder. “hey, we’ll figure this out, we always do. Maybe it’ll be fun even.”

They followed The Jon and Sam who had one of The Jon’s arms over his shoulder, just in case, on their way to the kitchen and the promised sandwich when Rabbit caught Michael’s attention.

“You missed a bit there buddy, don’t worry though, Spine here drools sometimes too.” Michael tried to wipe the rest of the oil off his lips as Rabbit gave him an encouraging pat and The Spine groaned in annoyance a few steps behind them


	4. Chapter 4

Michael was fighting the urge to find the closest reflective surface to inspect the damage.

He found that he was very acutely aware of every single movement his body made. Every turning gear and hissing actuator and pumping piston.

Michael wasn’t especially sure if he was just hyper-aware of every noise this body made because it wasn’t his or it really was just that loud.

The Spine was worriedly hovering a few steps behind him, which was honestly really comforting because Michael was swaying back and forth between resigned acceptance and an absolute freak out. Now there was nothing wrong with being a robot, but Michael liked his body. It was his body! He’d had it his whole life!

He couldn’t take it anymore, and with a deep breath he closed his eyes and turned to one of the many large mirrors that adorned most hallways in the Walter Manor.

He peeked uncertainly through his dull grey fingers and found himself oddly relieved that he still had hair, even if it was stiff brown wires in the shape of his haircut,. His eyes seemed the same at first until he realized they glowed ever so slightly, and his eyebrows were shaped metal that tilted with a whir of tiny actuators to allow a full range of expressions.

At a guess Michael would say he was probably made of some kind of steel composite, from the look of his dull grey ‘skin’. He tilted his head to either side, watching as little panels in his neck slid over and across each other to allow full range of motion

He let the held breath out and was a bit surprised to watch as steam puffed out of grates at either cheek. Not nearly as ornate as Rabbit’s but not as subtle as The Spine’s either. He wondered absently how the slightly blunter metal fingers would impact his banjo playing. 

He didn’t have too much time to think on it as he was suddenly shoved back a step by The Jon, who attempted to use Michael and the wall as protection.

“Michael, tell Rabbit to leave me ‘lone!” The Jon demanded, ducking down and using Michael as if he were a shield.

“A-A-All I want is F-For you tah take off your hat Tha Jon! I G-G-Gotta see how bad ya bumped your head.”

The Jon stubbornly held his hat in place and stuck out his tongue. 

“I’m. Just. Fine, Rabbit! lee’me lone! Why aren’t you bothering Michael!?” 

“Because that would require a screwdriver?” Sam offered.

Steve smacked him on the arm “Shudup Sam, not helping.”

“Y-Y-Ya gotta remember Y-humans are more fragile than bots Tha Jon! You could be really hurt!”

Rabbit sounded extremely worried and his voice was tinged with aggravation.

The Jon for his part scootched closer to the wall and pulled Michael forward a little bit as if creating a fortress for himself.

Michael could see his own bemused expression from the corner of his eye, reflected back at him from the mirror as he watched his friend whine and complain, both hands tightly securing his hat to his head.

He didn’t even say anything, just reached down and wrapped an arm around the was-a-bot’s middle and ever so gently lifted him so that he was pinned in place, his feet dangling a half an inch from the floor. With the other hand he pried the top hat from his head as The Jon flailed and whined.

“Next time, you might want to think about which side somebody’s on before you corner yourself,” Michael said, grinning.

The Jon continued to struggle and whine for a minute before finally going limp and pouting out a “No fair!”

He handed the top hat off to The Spine, who was still watching him worriedly as if he’d break down at any moment (an expression normally directed at his big brother Rabbit).

Michael quietly marveled at how effortlessly he held The Jon aloft. How programing that whispered at the back of his mind kept him from grasping the now-human too tight or too loosely. The way he never seemed to lose his balance as The Jon had flailed about even though the weight distribution of this alien body was so very different than his own, tiny gyros keeping him always at just the right angle.

The Jon muttered “traitor” as Rabbit began to fuss over him.

There were a few moments of panic following Rabbit moving The Jon’s curly hair aside only to draw his metal fingers back covered in blood but it was quickly discovered it was only a tiny cut and just happened to bleed a lot, simply because that was what cuts on the head did. Steve was able to close it up after pulling a tube of superglue out of some random drawer. (“No really, that’s what this stuff was invented for!” he insisted when Sam expressed doubt)

Michael ruffled the smaller man’s hair once the thick ooze had finally dried on his scalp “Guess somebodies gonna get to find out what a shower’s like later.” 

The Jon made an indignant huff. “I know what a shower is, it’s like the rain but warm.”

Michael couldn’t hold in his laughter and the explosion of steam that accompanied it. He could feel the bellows that had replaced his lungs as they contracted and the boiler that had replaced his stomach bubble and boil away happily powering the rest of his body, which honestly weirded him out more than a little.

He was starting to fixate on that feeling of strangeness and a little panic, it threatened to leap up and swallow him whole, when Steve spoke up and broke him from his stupor.

“One of my buddies is a physician and if this bit of crazy takes more than a quick fix to sort back out I plan on getting The Jon a full once over.”

The Jon let his legs go limp and flopped into a dramatic lump on the carpet.

“I’m done,” he announced, “you win, carry me.”

He’d done things like this before, ‘winning’ a fight by going ragdoll and admitting ‘defeat’.

They all stared down at him and he stared back up at them. 

“You realize we actually could now, right?” Sam pointed out.

The Jon smiled smugly. “I know.”

So either they could leave him lying there, meaning he wouldn’t have to put up with any more fussing, or one of them would be carrying him the rest of the way to the kitchen.

“Not it”

The all turned, slightly surprised, to The Spine who had taken a step back at the suggestion and had both hands up.

Rabbit groaned and stepped forward. “F-Fine, I’ll do it. Ya know you can be a real brat sometimes Tha Jon.” He huffed as he picked his younger brother up and carried him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

For his part The Jon just grinned cockily and tossed Michael a thumbs up from his spot dangling over Rabbits shoulder as he was carried to the kitchen.

“Well, The Jon’s certainly holding up well.” The Spine commented, once again at Michael’s side. “How about you, doing okay?”

“I’m just great.” Michael insisted, his smile not reaching anywhere near his eyes.

The Spine raised a titanium-alloy eyebrow skeptically. “You sure?”

“Oh yeah, Being a robot is fantastic! I don’t have to eat or drink or go to the bathroom or breathe” His grin was tight and nowhere near convincing.

The thought flashed through his mind that his jaw was metal and NO he wasn’t going to panic.

“You still have to drink, Michael. You literally run on water now.” The Spine pointed out and tsked as Michael huffed, flinching at the cloud of steam it brought and turned on his heels with the excuse, “I’d better help Rabbit out with The Jon”

He couldn’t make Michael talk to him, no matter how obvious it was that this whole ordeal was harder for him to handle than for The Jon - forcing the issue at this point would only make things worse. He would just have to wait for Michael to come to his senses.


	5. Chapter 5

The Jon just looked so pleased with himself as Sam set the finished grilled cheese in front of him at the kitchen table. He even did a little happy dance as he picked it up and sniffed it a bit just to see how the olfactory input differed from an actual sense of smell. 

Michael had flipped a chair around and sat leaning on its back, watching The Jon with mild amusement as he took an over dramatized bite of the sandwich and chewed with gusto.

“SAAAMMMMM!” Sam flinched at the fridge and turned a wary eye over his shoulder. “Your sand-which is delicious! And I can finally tell!” A grin broke out on the ginger’s face as he returned to whatever task he was busying himself with.

 

Michael snorted, mildly surprised that it was still possible as an automaton, and watched absently as Steve, Rabbit, and The Spine discussed what they could do to fix this.

Steve paused mid-conversation and put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “How you holding up?”

Michael looked up at Steve. He could hear the actuator as he lifted one eyebrow in a skeptical expression. “I am doing perfectly fine,” he said rather calmly, even though he felt like he could scream.

“I’m sure it’ll all get fixed real quick, but if not I’m gonna give you the once over too, okay? You hit the wall hard too, wanna make sure nothing got shaken loose.”

Michael just puffed a cloud of steam in reply, and went back to trying very very hard to pretend he couldn’t feel the gears whirring as he shifted his shoulders or the strange feeling in his stomach that he assumed was his suddenly-existing boiler.

 

The Jon had set down his half-eaten sandwich so that he could turn in his seat, and exclaimed “Yeah Michael! I bet the guys’ll fix this up in no time!” 

As he turned back to plop back into his seat his elbow promptly knocked the plate which tipped his sandwich onto the floor.

There was a pause.

“OOOOOOHHHHH SSSAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!”

Sam was in the middle of tying his shoe into a distinct mustache shape when the brass bot called. He cringed as the Jon drew out the a, and looked down at the kitchen doorway.

He wouldn’t do it. He would not go pick up the sandwich.

It was understandable before, there was just a certain angle the bot couldn’t do and he could be rather clumsy, but he could certainly reach now.

He bit his lip. He watched the kitchen doorway some more. 

At last, Sam walked through the door behind The Spine, giving him a cursory nod as he made his way to The Jon’s side.

He glanced from the sandwich on the ground to The Jon’s expectant face and back again.

“Sam, I dropped my sandwich.”

With a long-suffering sigh, Sam knelt down, The Jon watching intently, and picked up the sandwich. 

The Jon started wiggling excitedly as he stood. 

 

Turned.

 

And walked the sandwich right to the waste bin.

 

The Jon’s face fell into yet another pout.

“But…my sand-which” That lip-quiver made a reappearance.

“Humans can’t eat food if it’s been on the floor,” Sam stated simply 

“But it was my sand-which!”

“I know, I’ll make you another.” There was a ‘Yay!’ behind him. Sam couldn’t get too upset at the was-a-bot. Even when he did drop things on purpose, he really thought he was playing a game. The Jon really did want them to be friends, he just didn’t really know how to go about doing it.

 

“You know, it’s your turn now Michael. Gotta make sure you’re okay too.” Sam stated over his shoulder as he started on The Jon’s second sandwich.

“Yep,” Steve agreed, gently pushing Michael forward against the back of the chair to scrutinize Michael’s back “We’ll just give you a quick once over.”

Something caught metaphorically in Michael’s throat. He did not want this to happen. “No that’s all right, I’m doing perfectly fine…”

“Well good,” The Sound engineer said as he searched under Michael’s tanktop for the proper switch. This was about where it was on the other bots so logic dictated it was a good place to start looking on Michael. “But you hit that wall pretty hard; I heard the thud. We have to make sure nothing important got shaken loose..”

“An’ that you’re not all organs or something nasty in there,” teased Sam, flipping the grilled cheese.

“Shudup Sam, still not helping.” Steve snapped as he tried again to search for the switch he knew had to be there.

“No seriously, it isn’t necessary.” Michael batted Steve away from him and turned around to sit properly in the chair, his back pressed firmly against it.

“Yes it is,” Steve stated firmly, pulling Michael forward with that sterness normally reserved for fathers wrangling their stubborn children. “We need to know what we’re dealing with; what if something odd transfered over? What if you run off crystal pepsi like The Jon?”

“NO, no I-It’s fine. I don’t thi-ink… I’m perfectly fine all right? If it’s not broke don’t fix it. R-right?” he stammered. Or perhaps it was a glitch. He wasn’t sure how to tell and that honestly scared him a little.

“Michael will you stop being such a baby?” Steve chastised, and then he found the switch.

And Michael could tell he could feel it and that sent him into a whole nother level of panic.

“Steve please just D-D-D-” His head turned sharply to the side and he let out a little gasp. A hand coming to his neck as the glitch took him completely by surprise.

Steve stopped, his hand going from Michaels back to his shoulder. “You okay man?”

“I-I-I will B-B-be Once-ce-ce you leave me Al-lone” He tries to bite out but the skipping in his voice box just keeps getting worse, his body twitching a little involuntarily.

Steve’s gaze went to his companions in a plea for help.

“Michael, you need to calm down,” The Spine said, his voice as cool and calm as ever as he knelt beside the one bot band.

Michael’s body hitched involuntarily in his seat and there was too much steam escaping his vents to be a good thing. 

“G-G-G-guys I-I-I-I’m fin-N-N-Ne I PR-PR-PRom-M-M-” The words wouldn’t come out and his body was refusing to do what he wanted it to and suddenly darkness was edging into his vision and the last thing he saw was The Spine moving forward as if to catch him.


	6. Chapter 6

There was a moment of confusion as Michael’s systems powered back on. The Spine had an arm wrapped around his chest to keep him from falling head first out of his chair, his eyes trained on Michael’s face and filled with worry.

Michael’s vision came back first, optics flickering as he blinked dazedly. Processors sluggishly trying to process what had just happened. Then all at once his motor control came back online and he was once again in control of his body. There was a *Bzztwhir* as he sat straight in one quick movement.

“Are you okay Michael?” The Spine asked, arm still raised as if expecting him to shut down again.

“WH-WH-What juST-st happ-P-Pened?” his voice continued to skip with his nerves.

“I think you started to panic, and that started to overload your processors and your system forced a shut down to make sure nothing would be damaged.”

Michael stared at The Spine numbly. He’d shut down? Like Rabbit during a show? 

“Mike, we really need to take a look and make sure everything’s okay in there,” Steve pointed out softly, once again placing a reassuring hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Why is this freaking you out so much? You’ve been doing repairs on these guys since you could walk.”

The panic was already starting to well up inside him and he could feel his leg starting to twitch with a new set of glitches.

“I-I-I Don’t K-know I juST-st can’t.What I-If Sam’s R-R-right? I-It’d be LI-LI-like BE-BE-being conscious durinG-G-g kidney surgery!” 

Another glitch yanked his head to the right and he whimpered, his fingers digging into the fabric of his shorts as he fought desperately to control his own body.

“We could…” Sam looked thoughtful as he set the plate on the table, even though The Jon was at Rabbit’s side peeking over his shoulder and fretting quietly. “We could shut you down… just long enough to make sure you’re fine.”

His photo-receptors flashed brighter and he could feel his processors kicking into overdrive. Shutting down on accident was bad enough he couldn’t imagine having it done to him on purpose.

“I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I…”

He was stuck in a loop and he couldn’t make it stop and he was panicking again and he was certain he could actually feel the overload coming.

He screwed his eyes shut as the loop continued, his arm jerking and his leg jittering, when a hand was placed gently on his arm.

“You’re gonna be okay Michael.” He cracked an optic open to find Rabbit smiling gently at him.

“I-I-I don’t think I can do this!” the words all came out in a rush, not what he’d originally started out to say but what he was thinking now.

“Nonsense, Y-You’re obviously in better repair than I am, you’re just getting worked up.”

He moved his hand from Michael’s arm to his shoulder, gently steadying his quaking form.

“I know it’s scary and it’s hard to do but Y-ya gotta just let it happen okay?” He ducked his head so that they were looking eye to eye “You’re not busted, nothing’s gonna be wrong in there and it’s no worse than a doctor lookin ya over. you’re just workin yurself up over nothin and Sam’s just makin stupid jokes to try and help.”

Another glitch worked through his body and his shoulder jerked him away involuntarily, it was hard but he tried not to fight it this time.

”You’re not glitching because you’re broke, you’re glitching because you’re upset.” Rabbit flashed him a grin “TR-Trust me, I know.”

His head twitched again but he didn’t fight it so hard this time, tried his hardest to stop struggling against his own internal workings and almost instantly the rampant malfunctions lessened and quickly stilled completely. 

Michael took a deep breath, filling his bellows as much as he could, and let out a cloud of steam.

“Th-There ya go! I knew you could do it.”

For a moment they were all still as Michael worked to calm himself down. 

“Thanks Rabbit,” he sighed finally, extremely relieved to hear his words come out even and unbroken. Rabbit waved him away with a dismissive ‘ppfftt’.

 

“I think I’m okay now guys,” he sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

And for the moment he was, Michael was sure that wouldn’t last. Because this was still a bit too much for even him to handle but that was another break down for a later time. For now he had gotten the panic out of his system and he felt as if he could finally handle what was necessary.

“Wanna give it another shot?”

“Are you sure? Michael, you just freaked out so hard over the idea that you shut down!” Steve looked his friend over.

“Just get it over with Steve,” Michael huffed in reply.

“All right, if you say so..” he pushed Michael’s tank top aside again and looked over the switch. “But this is a different kind of switch, I need something to get in and press it with.”

Sam gave him an amused look before digging through one of the kitchen cabinets and pulling something out. “You mean like a screwdriver maybe?” He snickered, handing it over to Steve. “Who’s not helping now.”

“Oh shuddup Sam,” Steve groaned, taking the screwdriver and carefully lining it up with the press switch.

There was a *click* and it occurred to Michael belatedly that he would probably have to take his tank top off as his chest opened and the door pressed against the fabric.

“Well that’s…new,” Michael deadpanned looking down at himself before sighing and tugging his purple tank top off. The loosely swinging hatch of his chest felt odd, and he toyed with it a bit before looking over his shoulder to Steve with a raised eyebrow.

“Stop playing with yourself, Michael,” he snickered as he came around to take a look.

Michael’s hand snapped away and his eyes widened in a look of indignation “Shut up, Steve, not even funny!”

Sam had doubled over from laughing so hard while The Jon looked at them all in mild confusion. “I don’t get it.”

“Good,” Rabbit said, a palm coming to rest on his forehead. “Eat your sandwich, The Jon,” Spine ordered, trying to hide his own snicker.

“You guys suck, you know that?!” Michael pouted as Steve poked around his systems and Michael wriggled and shifted in his chair from the sheer strangeness of the feeling.

“My god, Michael, would you hold still?” Steve glared up at him.

“Well, I’m sorry, but it’s hard to keep in one spot when somebody’s hand is where your spleen should be,” he snapped back.

Steve sighed, rolling his eyes dramatically. “This isn’t even were your spleen is, I’m closer to, say, your gallbladder or something…” 

“Are we really having this conversation?” Michael huffed, watching as his friend buried himself elbow deep into his chest.

Steve ignored him, instead focusing on checking over his suddenly robotic friend’s systems.

Finally he nodded to himself and with a flick of his wrist snapped the hatch closed to a disgruntled sound from Michael.

“Hey, be careful with that…” he grumbled as he pulled his tank top back on, running a finger over the seam to make sure it had shut correctly.

“Oh, stop whining, I barely even swung it. You were right, you’re perfectly fine. Looks like your mechanics are somewhere between Rabbit and The Spine’s workings…thankfully with no hints of The Jon’s workings anywhere.” Steve grinned as The Jon straightened up and gave him an irritated look. “Excuse me? And what exactly is wrong with the way I run?!” 

Both Rabbit and The Spine had to fight to suppress their laughter as The Jon stood there with his arms crossed, lips pursed in a disapproving pout and eyebrow raised in a silent demand for an explanation.

“I’m sorry, The Jon; your workings make almost no mechanical sense, and it’d be really hard to spot any problems, let alone fix them,” Steve said as delicately as he could manage.

It didn’t work; The Jon stuck out his now pink tongue at the Sound Tech, making a ‘mneh’ noise. “Well fine then. I’m gonna have an Ice cream parade and you’re not invited! Me and Michael and Rabbit an The Spine an Sam will eat all the ice cream and you can’t have any.” He marched over to the freezer and started pulling out tubs of different flavored ice-cream, stopping for a moment to look his arm over and announce, “Haha, look! I’ve got goose bumps!”

Steve exchanged glances with Sam and Michael “Thank god for short attention spans.”

The Jon got four brain freezes before he finally learned to pace himself.

They all resigned themselves to a long night of dealing with the inevitable sugar high.


	7. Chapter 7

Getting the blood washed out of The Jon’s hair had been an adventure.

Not because he couldn’t figure out how a shower worked but because he decided to take full advantage of being able to do so and refusing to leave till he’d used up every bit of hot water in the house as well as played with every bath toy and product he could get his hands on.

Lot of bubbles to clean up after

The Spine finally dragged him out of the bathroom two hours later buried under every towel on the rack and looking pleased as punch.

“Behold, I am prune man.”

He announced, gleefully showing his wrinkled fingers off to Sam, Steve, Rabbit, and Michael as he plopped down on the couch besides them in a borrowed shirt and sweats.

The Spine rolled his eyes and left the room. The Jon could be their responsibility for a while; he had bubble bath to clean out of his plates.

Bedtime was - 

Interesting.

 

At first The Jon straight up refused to try and sleep, then he'd crashed from his sugar high and all but fallen over onto The Spine who simply carried him up to his room with no more fuss.

Michael on the other hand had no problem heading to bed, feeling run down from the days events in a way that was completely alien to him. But try as he might he couldn't seem to nod off and after an hour of staring at the ceiling and the faint light his eyes cast on it he realized **_why_**.

He was trying to go to sleep when what he should be doing was shutting down for stasis and the thought weirded him out even more.

He was tired. Not in the same way he normally was, not in a human way. But that didn’t make much of a difference. He hadn’t slept much the last few nights, not due to any problem just not paying attention to the time while working on personal projects, and now he was deeply regretting it.

He groaned inwardly and rolled out of bed, which creaked and groaned and whinned with the shift of weight, not at all built to handle an automaton but it would hold up for at least a bit.

*CRASH*

Steam puffed out of the vents at either cheek as he sighed, there went that. Mentally adding ‘buy knew bed’ to an imaginary to do list he was surprised to find an actual digital one being created by his thoughts and toppled off the mattress and onto the carpet. So he wasn't especially used to the new weight distribution yet and it turned out he didn't exactly have the  ** _best_** stabilizers.

With a grumble he hefted himself up from the floor, listening intently for any odd whining or warning pings that would tell of damage he may have done to himself but nothing seemed at all off.

He wasn't at all sure where he was going, just that he didn't want to lay awake in (his now wrecked) bed anymore.

He wandered the halls for a good hour, singing Make Believe quietly to himself as he went and realizing about half way through it wasn’t the best choice of song given his current predicament.

He was however somewhat pleased his singing voice didn’t seem to sound at all different as a robot.

When a door opened behind him in the hallway Michael jumped (firstly because it was just weird for there to be doors anywhere but personal bedrooms and secondly because he didn’t expect anyone to be awake at this time of night) turning to find The Spine looking him over worriedly from the doorway of the HOW, he hadn’t even realized he was near the HOW.

“Are you alright Michael?”

He shrugged his metal shoulders, cringing internally at the whirr of servo’s at the action.

“Just couldn’t sleep, decided to wander around a bit. Sorry if I bothered you, didn’t think anyone was up.”

The titanium alloy automaton leaned against the door frame and gave him a serious look

“You’re lying.”

Michael balked “Excuse me? What, are you hacking into my head now or something? You seem so sure.”

He motions to Michaels face “You’ve been crying, your face is covered in oil.” He explains bluntly.

Michael’s optics widen and he rubs his cheek with the back of his hand, pulling it away covered in thick black.

“oh”

The Spine stays quiet for a moment letting him settle, then pushes the door to the HOW open a bit further and offers gently

“You want to talk about it?”

-

It was nearly 4 am when something pulled Rabbit out of stasis and he opened his optics to find a rather disheveled and sniffling The Jon at his bed side.

"Hey, hey w-w-what's wrong Dah Jon?" he pulled the was-a-bot into his lap where he was surprised to feel him shivering.

"I- i c-can't -"

"Can't what? You havin trouble sleepin?"

The Jon shook his head

"Then what's up?"

A few unsteady breaths and he finally got out in a quiet voice "I can't talk to Hatchy like this Rabbit."

oh

**_OH_ **

Oh shit.

"It's okay, Dah Jon i-"

"N-no it's not! I talk to him every night Rabbit! I even went down and tried to shout through the door but it didn't work! He's g-gonna think I forgot about him or something!"

The sniffle turned into a choked sob and he hid his face in Rabbits shoulder.

"He's already **_alone_** down there," he whimpered pitifully “I don’t want him to think we forgot about him on top of that.”

There really wasn't anything to say to that. So Rabbit settled on rocking gently and patting The Jon on the back and humming under his breath as The Jon cried himself to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

You'd never know how upset The Jon had been just the night before by the pleased smile he wore as he bounced into the manor ahead of a shell shocked looking Steve.

He'd woken the was-a-bot early to take him for a checkup and made sure his head smacking into the wall the day before hadn't caused any permanent damage.

And from The Jon's expression the news was good.

Michael watched him skip into the kitchen and straight to the fridge as Steve slowly sank into the seat beside the one man metalic band.

"No concussion I take it?"

Steve shook his head numbly, and a bit longer then necessary, but eventually he did speak.

"Just a bump, the Doctor just stuck a butterfly bandage on it called it good. Said it'd be healed up in no time."

He put his head in his hands and leaned forward on the table staring at nothing.

"Then why do you look like that?" Michael asked slowly, steam puffing from the vents in his cheeks.

Another long moment of silence.

"The doc did an x-ray on him, 'cause I mentioned he'd probably hit the wall flat and was worried he'd bruised a rib or something."

"And?"

"And-"

Michael sighed and put a hand to his forehead

"Dude just spit it out!"

"Steve's still here!" The Jon announced gleefully as he released his armload of foods he was intent on trying in a heap on the table.

At least that knocked Steve out of his shock a little as he gave him a confused look

"I'm standing right next to you."

The Jon waved him off as he spread jelly on a slice of turkey "No not you, my koi!"

"You named your koi after me?"

He shrugged and nodded "It was feeling upset, I needed a really cool name to make it feel better."

"Aaawwwwww that's sweet."

The was-a-bot shrugged and went back to creating his grotesque culinary concoction.

Michael snorted and turned back to Steve "How the heck can that even work? What about all his organs and suff?"

The SOUND engineer just shook his head showing his own disbelief as he pulled a large envelope out of his bag.

"You're not gonna believe it dude, they're still there. It's the trippiest thing. Check out his x-ray."

"You can keep that kinda thing?"

"Yeah, check it out."

Michael took the envelope and, with a tiny bit of apprehension about his metaic grip, gently slid the stiff plastic out and held it to the light.

"It's just an x-ray."

"Yeah, when you look at it like that, but-"

He took Michaels wrist and shifted the sheet just slightly, and like alenticular card the image shifted and changed.

"Holyshit - that's the void!"

"Yep"

"And the Koi, and the hotdog!"

"Yep, all there, just like I said. And so are his lungs and his stomach and his kidneys. It's like they're all existing in the same spot at the same time."

The bot turned to stare in muted shock at the was-a-bot as he took a big bite of his creation, made a face, and set it to the side to start a new one.

Michael tilted his head, ignoring the whir of his neck as he did so.

"Ya know, I shouldn't be surprised consideirng it's **_him_** and yet somehow I still am."

Possibly the biggest mystery about The Jon was the fact that he continues to surprise people by being The Jon.

He shook his head with a chuckle and turned his attention back to the x-ray as The Jon tried out dipping brussel sprouts in some left over cranberry sauce and seemed rather satisfied.

 

It was fascinating to look at, tilted one way the x-ray was completely normal. His ribs and spine in sharp relief compared to the vague sadows of his other organs. It all looked terribly normal.

But tilt it ever so slightly and suddenly it all shifted. The ribs were still there, but instead of the vague shapes of internal organs was he impossible yawning nothingness that was the void and in shocking detail lay The Jon's beloved Koi, slightly smaller and assumedly a small distance behind it floated the Hot Dog in a Bun.

If he shifted it a tiny bit more it was like The Koi was swimming around.

It was strangely calming to look at, Optics losing focus slightly as he shifted it back and forth the tiniest bit watching the koi's movements.

Lazily drifting in that strange break from reality that was, and was not, within the thin frame of The Jon, the void stretching on and on into nothingness.

 

"Mikey?"

 

"Michael."

 

"Mike!"

 

He jollted, optics taking a minute to focus on Steve's worried expression.

"Yeah?"

The frown deepened

"You okay dude? You were staring for a while."

He carefully set a hand on Michaels metal wrist and lowered it, he'd still been holding the x-ray up to the light, for a while if his internal clocks were to be believed. a lot longer then he'd thought he had.

"Yeah, 'm fine. Just tired I guess." He shrugged lazily.

"Didn't you power down last night?"

He shook his head, it left him feeling - not light headed but something like it.

"Couldn't - stayed up talk'n to The Spine. Shut down for a little while at like - four? maybe?"

"Dude that's not okay, you know how that effects the bots. You need to give your systems a rest."

"I'm fine, I'll get some rest ton- The Jon maybe that's not the best mi-"

While the two techs had been talking the Jon had pulled out some leftover jello and curiously poured a heaping helping of hot sauce into it, stirring it into a goopy mess and shoving a big spoonful in his eager mouth.

" ** _HOT!!!!_** "

Spoon, jello, and hot sauce all went clattering to the floor as The Jon flailed about trying to cool his burning tongue. Scurrying in a frantic little circle where he stood.

"Calm down you'll be alright, " Steve sighed and rolled his eyes for Michael to see before he got up and grabbing him by the elbow, leading him to the sink where the Jon desperately lapped at the water.

A second later a cup of milk was handed to him and he gulped it down, letting out a relieved sigh as he slumped against the counter.

"Better?"

The Jon took a few ragged gasps before huffing out

"I don't LIKE HOT!"

Steve tried his hardest not to laugh outright at the look of pure indignation on the other man's face but wasn't succeding at all.

"Well now you know, you shouldn't just shove anything together and eat it. Probably a good idea to stay away from the hot stuff from now on huh?"

"Mmmnnnyeeah I guess so."

"Go sit down I'l make you something you can actually stomach."

"Okay!"

He plunked down in the chair Steve had vacated just a moment ago, wiggling a bit in excitment. Maybe it'd be another sanwich! Still swigging his glass of milk to keep the heat from the hot sauce from coming back.

The smile dropped a bit though as he turned to Michael.

 

He'd gone to join Steve at The Jon's side when he'd first started to panic over the burning sensation of his first taste of hotsauce, but even with one arm bracing against the table and one on the chair under him, the servos in his hips and legs whining desperately as they struggled, he couldn't seem to push himself up.

After another moment of struggle he gave up and sat back in his seat with annoyed huff, The Jon eyeing his cheeks nervously as no steam was vented forth along with it.

"You okay Mikey?"

"Yeah, yeah 'm fine" he waved the worried was a bot off, his optics dimming slightly "Just din' power down enough las' night. 's all"

The Jon didn't look convinced, his brow creasing with worry as he inspected Michael closely.

"Nuh uh, this ain't how a bot gets when they've been runnin too long. And itd take longer then a night for ya to start glitching from that. Mikey can you not get up?"

Steve glanced woriedly over his shoulder at them as Michael turned his gazze away

"I- 'm fine"

"Are not! Mikey have you drank **_any_** water since yesterday?"

He opened his mouth to protest that of **_course_** he had, only to realze as memory files of the past day sluggishly played through his head that no- he hadn't.

"Steve! Mikey needs water! like **_now_**!",


End file.
